When a group of affluent 20-somethings plans a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very wrong.
With her second feature-length film, the hip A24 horror-comedy “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” actor-turned-director Halina Reijn wants to have her cake and eat it too. On the one hand, her goal is to deliver a genuinely frightening whodunit, a “Knives Out,” for the Gen-Z generation. On the other hand, Reijn aims to deconstruct/revitalize the age-old genre, to imbue it with a healthy dose of cynicism and sarcasm. She ends up halfway there on both accounts. Undeniably stylish and moving at a brisk pace, “Bodies (x3)” cleverly masks its rather conventional structure and lack of actual scares with a thick veil of pseudo-satire.
Shy, introverted Bee (Maria Bakalova) and her bold, extroverted girlfriend Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) arrive late to party at a friend’s isolated manor. Said friend is David (Pete Davidson), an entitled douchebag who treats his whiny girlfriend Emma (Chase Sui Wonders) like garbage. Party-girl Alice (Rachel Sennott), her much-older enigmatic/creepy boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace), and tough-chick Jordan (Myha’la Herrold) form the rest of this toxic get-together.
The young dimwits exchange witty but inconsequential passive-aggressive insults, resentments surfacing swiftly. Alcohol, drugs, and a machete enter the picture. The wi-fi and electricity go out. A torrential storm hits. One of our vapid heroes proposes that they play the titular game, the rules of which involve simulating a murder investigation. Predictably, bodies bodies bodies start piling up.
Sarah DeLappe’s screenplay gleefully veers between carefully following horror film tropes (from the stormy night cliché to the kills themselves) and relishing in heightened dialogue crammed with woke terms like “enabling,” “triggering,” and “gaslighting.” A whole sequence literally revolves around characters trading barbs. Who is the target audience? Is it the Gen Z-ers whom she ruthlessly satirizes? Or Millennials, raised on their “Elm Streets” and “Screams,” who tend to mock such verbiage? The former will likely giggle at some of it but miss the whole point — that they are the target, the butt of the joke. The latter may see through the “A24 cerebral indie” vale and soon get bored by the repetitive nastiness and banality of the protagonists.
The decision to make all the characters self-absorbed, smug, wealthy, ignorant, drug-addled brats is commendable for its audacity but ultimately doesn’t pay off. How difficult is it to satirize the current youth with all their sanctimonious, hypocritical bullshit? Bee may be the one exception, but even the tiny glimmer of soul in her eyes is soon eradicated as she obsesses over texts sent by her so-called girlfriend and even — spoiler alert — resorts to murder. The purposeful moral vacuum soon becomes wearying.
Jasper Wolf’s frequently shaky, basked-in-darkness camerawork and editors Julia Bloch and Taylor Levy’s headache-inducing editing don’t help matters. If Reijn aims to give the finger to old tropes, these should’ve been first on the list. Composer Disasterpiece, who livened up films like “It Follows” and “Under the Silver Lake,” deserves much credit for moving things along with a thumping, muted, grimy electronic score. The entire soundtrack, in fact, is splendid.
Maria Bakalova, of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” fame, impresses in a nearly-speechless role that requires her to communicate with subtle shifts in facial expressions. The rest of the cast revels in their talky parts, and to their credit, it’s almost as if they’re not acting, just being themselves. Considering the film’s pertinent feminist vibes — the only two male characters here are ugly caricatures of the “cisgender white man” — it’s ironic that Lee Pace, as the new-age/rapey Greg, and of all people, Pete Davidson as, well, himself, that stand out as highlights.
Young girls go to party, play scary game, most of the characters die, and big twist occurs. As subversive as Reijnn and DeLappe attempt to be, it all somehow still boils down to this formula. A beating heart is missing here, a warmth, something that reassures the audience that these people do not form the future of our society. Sadly, they do. This film either won’t age well at all or will end up signifying a major cultural paradigm shift, the moment when it all went to hell in a handbasket.
In Select Theaters Friday, August 5th, and Nationwide Friday, August 12th
